The Cross River government and the state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers on Monday disagreed over the alleged existence of 4,000 ghost workers in the local government system.
The disagreement emerged during a meeting convened by Victor-Felix Idem, commissioner for local government affairs, with labour leaders and education stakeholders in Calabar.
The meeting was called after the chairman of NUT, in an earlier protest, alleged that the state government still owed salaries to many of its members for previous months and that there was a lack of implementation of promotions for some members.
Mr Idem said the government uncovered widespread payroll irregularities through a verification exercise involving bank verification numbers submitted by workers.
According to him, more than 2,000 teachers and several other local government workers were flagged for submitting invalid or suspicious BVNs during the exercise.
“We discovered 1,200 fake BVNs in the LG councils, 526 in the primary health centres, 643 political appointees and 2,000 in the State Universal Basic Education Board,” he said.
He alleged that some BVNs were fake, while others were linked to multiple names, raising concerns about payroll fraud and ghost workers.
The commissioner maintained that the verification was aimed at sanitising the payroll and ensuring only genuine workers received salaries.
He dismissed claims that the ministry paid workers half salaries, insisting that salary payments were handled directly by local government councils. He challenged the NUT to produce evidence of workers allegedly being paid half salaries, including payslips and records of affected staff.
Responding, Cross River NUT chairman, Gregory Olayi, defended the union’s position and expressed concern over unpaid salaries and promotion irregularities.
Mr Olayi said several teachers had remained unpaid since September despite complying with directives to submit payroll and BVN documents. He also alleged that some teachers experienced salary reductions after promotion adjustments were initially implemented.
The union leader, however, endorsed the government’s payroll verification exercise, stressing the need to eliminate ghost workers and protect public funds.
Mr Olayi urged the ministry to improve communication with labour unions to prevent misunderstandings and avoid unnecessary public disputes, adding that he would come with records to clear the genuine but affected members of the union.
Bassey Eko, auditor-general for local governments, said a review of salary implementations revealed the need to verify approved promotions and assess their financial implications.
He explained that SUBEB was directed to provide a comprehensive record of promotions and implementations, warning that failure to do so would necessitate the suspension of payments to some of its staff. He said the exercise aims to prevent payroll fraud and ensure accountability.